We are a school heavily invested in Positive Behavior Inventions and Supports (PBIS), and one of our schoolwide expectations is to be safe. Students receive instruction and reteaching on this and are taught what ‘Be Safe’ looks like across the school. We use Second Step instructional materials to teach students how to recognize, refuse, and report bullying. We staff extra supervisors at recesses (and will continue next year) and we will continue to have a campus created staff position to support behavior/safety with a certificated behavior intervention specialist for all gen ed students. This is a unique level of staffing and support that is at our school. School Safety was also one of the categories that parents responded most positively to in our most recent parent survey. Student’s academic, emotional, social, and physical safety will always be my number one priority at Jackson ES.

This is helpful feedback. As a result, one of the identified revisions to our Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) program for next year is to invite parents into the planning stage earlier. When we identify a concern for a student – academic, social-emotional, or behavior – we want parents to know what it is, our instructional objectives, and the plan to support the student. When we share a concern with our parents, we also want to hear their input and suggestions. Bringing parents into this process early on strengthens our partnership by opening a dialogue around the concern and plan to address it, and a chance to incorporate parent feedback and ideas. I will continue to work with teachers and our counseling team to include parents early in conversations about social emotional related concerns, and to better equip parents to have informative conversations at home.

I will review classroom procedures for accessing the bathroom with our teaching staff. In general, teachers prefer that students not miss their instruction for a break but attempt to recognize when the break is urgent. We want students to feel safe to ask for help with this, and our primary teachers are very supportive of their students' well-being in this area. All students will have times available during the day to take a bathroom break. If you have any questions or concerns about this please contact your child’s teacher, and we will work together on a plan.

When we conduct lockdown drills, we let students know the protocol is for their safety. We do not refer to specific threats or in any way attempt to make students feel unsafe, but we direct students to: make themselves small in a place away from the door, remain silent and still. If they are in a hallway for the drill, they are to find shelter in the closest room with an adult. 

This is in reference to our Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) system. This is a framework that we use to provide appropriate supports to each student. Every student at Jackson elementary receives Tier 1 support – classroom instruction using common curriculum, PBIS system, social-emotional instruction, and effective teaching strategies. Tier 1 includes all the things that a school does to support each child. Most students are successful with only Tier 1 instruction. Some students may also need additional help to be successful – this additional support starts in Tier 2. Tier 2 supports may include small group reteaching, extended day groups, a behavior support plan. We think of Tier 2 supports as giving a student extra time, attention, and focus – these are lower level supports and help an additional 10-15% of students to be successful. We elevate students from Tier 1 to Tier 2 in many ways – but most frequently by screening assessment data or by teacher referral. In Tier 2 we identify a skill deficit that we are concerned about, create an instructional plan, and determine how we will track student growth. Then we put this plan into place for a cycle of 4-8 weeks. There is a wide spectrum for how these plans can look, and they are appropriate for academic, social, emotional, and behavioral concerns. At Tier 2 we often involve instructional coaches, counselors, behavior specialist, and the principal: this team monitors growth throughout the intervention cycle. If there is growth, we continue with the plan until the skill is met. If there is no growth, we determine if we need more time, revision, or a new intervention plan. 

Your best, first contact is always your child’s teacher. Your child’s teacher may have more information about a situation with another student and can either help your child successfully resolve the concern or make the appropriate referral to the staff member who can. Your child’s teacher can work with our behavior specialist, admin para, counselors, or principal to find the correct strategy to resolve the concern. You are also always welcome to contact me directly with your concern. 

Thank you for this observation about student’s social, emotional, and behavior regulation skills! We also recognize the impact that the pandemic has had on our children’s social and emotional skills; and as a parent I see this in my own children as well. We have a social and emotional resources including a core curriculum – Second Step – that each teacher uses in their classroom to teach social and emotional skills. Next year we will begin implementing the RULER framework in our classrooms and teaching children how to Recognize, Understand, Label, Express, and Regulate their emotions; there are several other great components to the RULER framework we will share with you next year that we are integrating. We also have two counselors in our building that provide many supportive services to our school. All this is done in response to the needs our students have in this area.

We have worked hard to decrease inappropriate behavior on our buses, but still have work to do. We have expectations for all children for the bus – this part of our PBIS system. We teach children how to meet these expectations and reteach behaviors for children that need the extra support. Disciplinary steps we follow for repeated bus behavior infractions include parent meetings, bus suspensions, and alternate bussing plans. We follow a very similar pattern for recess: established expectations for games/areas on the playground, teach and reteach those expectations, and when students fail to meet expectations multiple times, we follow additional steps. These steps can include Recess Crew – a multi-day reteach group focused on learning better behaviors/strategies to use at recess, loss of recess, alternate recess plans (class helpers), parent meetings, and possibly formal school discipline.

Our systems are schoolwide, with my expectation that each teacher implements systems and follows protocols with consistency. We have a simple, common process for requesting support in the classroom or referring students for behavior. We have schoolwide expectations as part of our PBIS system and use time with all students and staff K-5 at assemblies to teach and reteach these expectations, so all hear the same message and same expectations. We will continue to work on the product – consistent implementation and follow through for admin and all staff – so that it matches what we know needs to happen for a safe, productive school year.

Absolutely! We are all in agreement that there is a lot of work still to do to recover learning loss and teach missed social/emotional skills due to Covid absences and disruptions. This and next year we have had a special emphasis on providing social emotional supports – the first 30 minutes of each school day is dedicated to time for teachers to teach social-emotional core curriculum (Second Step), check in with students, and foster a safe learning environment. We will continue this next year, and we are adding the adoption of the RULER framework to supporting students. 

I appreciated hearing this concern and will work on communication around this issue as best as possible. We have identified areas of trending data that we can share with the school community more often – such as the iReady results above – that include trends in behavior data. Our PBIS team identified the tracking of this data as a growth area for next year, and I will work with them to determine what in that data set could be helpful to parents. Please know that you can always reach out to me regarding a concern you have, if you suspect it is part of a larger problem. 

We work towards our hallways being consistently safe for each student by teaching and practicing our expectations: silent, single file lines, tight to the right, moving with a purpose. Hallway incidents often start elsewhere – the playground, busses, or even at home. Supervision and holding students to expectations reduces the opportunity for hallway incidents to occur, as does promoting to students that they report when they are having a problem with a schoolmate so an adult can help problem solve. 

This is an excellent idea that we will continue to work on. We have several staff members trained in de-escalation techniques using Right Response. Our behavior specialist has trained all staff on de-escalation techniques and understanding behavior as a form of communication. This has helped our response to behavior to be multi-faceted. When responding to escalated students we ensure safety first, then determine the appropriate response that may include school discipline. Part of this process includes Think Time sheets, where we work with students to uncover root causes of behavior: skill deficits or unmet needs, and an intervention plan to meet those. We will continue training teachers on trauma informed practices and de-escalation techniques.

Thank you for this suggestion. I currently staff recesses with four adult supervisors. This allows us to provide close supervision across the playground and field. We stress active supervision – walking around and checking in with students throughout the recess period. We have some ideas that we are implementing next year to increase the ratio of students to supervisors, adding more options at recess for students (children who are having fun and engaged at recess are the least likely to engage in misbehavior), and adding some more structure to recess to create a safer recess environment. 

This is a good idea that goes along with our desire to include parents earlier on in the MTSS process – share our concerns, goals, and plans – and keep you updated as we progress. Parents are also encouraged to reach out anytime you want an update your child – ask their teacher! Teachers love to talk about your children, share growth, and work together to support them.